Traditionally, most objects did not have wireless data connections that allowed them to connect to the Internet or other networks. However, “Internet of Things” (IoT) devices are being developed that have such wireless data connections and can use them to connect to the Internet, other networks, and/or other devices. For example, an IoT device can be a “smart” doorbell that sends a signal to a remote server and/or a homeowner's mobile phone when a visitor rings the doorbell.
Some IoT devices may routinely send and/or receive large amounts of data. For example, an internet-connected security camera can continually upload a video stream to a cloud server. Such IoT devices are often connected to an external power source.
However, other IoT devices may only occasionally send or receive data, and/or only send small amounts of data. For example, an industrial sensor can occasionally send a few bytes of data on infrequent occasions when it detects a particular condition in its surrounding environment. Due to the infrequent nature of these data transmissions and the relatively small amount of data transferred, these types of IoT devices can use a narrow spectrum of frequencies to send and/or receive data over long distances using relatively low data transfer rates. They can accordingly be referred to as NarrowBand (NB) IoT devices. NB-IoT devices often operate on battery power, because infrequently sending and/or receiving small amounts of data may not use much energy, allowing NB-IoT devices to be deployed almost anywhere.